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Hall gets its report card

SPRING VALLEY — Hall High School got its state report card, and the superintendent isn’t happy, acknowledging there is work to do.

Superintendent Mike Struna presented the Fiscal Year 2013 School Report Card at the regular school board meeting on Wednesday.

Hall receives 63 percent of its revenue from local state taxes and 24 percent from general state aid.

The school currently spends $7,712 in instructional expenses to educate each child in the district. The state average is $6,974.

The report card indicates the attendance rate is 95 percent, which is important because it affects the amount of general state aid the district receives.

The graduation rate in 2013 was 78 percent which Struna said was “nothing to be proud of” and indicated it was an area the district needs to do better on. Some ways the district is trying to increase that rate is by implementing interventions such as summer school, online classes and academic RTI.

Struna said he is concerned about the academic progress of the students. In 2013, only 47 percent of students met or exceeded the Illinois Learning Standards in reading, math and science.

“We have to get those scores up,” Struna said.

Some ways the teachers are trying to increase reading scores is by teaching reading in subject areas such as science, social studies and math because half of the test is composed of non-fiction passages.

Struna said the school is working toward providing the students more opportunities for further learning. He said he is disappointed and added, “We have a higher than state average in expenses per pupil, but test scores are below state average.”

The new high school for Hall students was also on the agenda at its meeting Wednesday night. The Hall High School Board of Education has scheduled its official groundbreaking for the new high school at 5 p.m. Oct. 30.

In other new school business, bid packages will be posted next week with the first bids for mass grading, site prep and foundation work to be due on Nov. 6. There will be a special board meeting the week of Nov. 11 to accept the lowest bid on package No. 1. Bid packages for the next phases will be posted following that.

Struna advised the board, “Things are coming together and will begin happening quickly now.”

In other business:

• Dave Wilcoxen presented the FY ‘13 audit.

• The board adopted a resolution to transfer $362,711.30 from the Capital Project Fund to the Operation and Maintenance Fund to reimburse previous expenditures for the new school project.

• Adopted a resolution to transfer $11,250 from the Capital Project Fund to the Tort Fund to reimburse previous expenditures for the new school project.

• The board received a grant in the amount of $2,133.87 from Walmart Distribution Center on behalf of their drivers.

• After a closed session, the board accepted with regret, the resignation of Shannon Bicknell, English instructor, effective Oct. 23.